An open space in the Ori ‘23 lineup led to what organisers have called a “golden opportunity” for our queer student community. OUSA Queer Support partnered with Dunedin Pride and UniQ to bring a pride event to O-week for the first time, ever.
Hosted on the museum lawn and DJ’ed by former mayor Aaron Hawkins, yesterday’s Pride Night was “really effective for getting more outreach and getting the whole community together,” according to Micah and Jay of UniQ, campus’s resident queer student club, “It’s so important to get the word out there and open Pride up to the student community.” The grounds were covered in colourful students boasting pride flags and pronoun stickers, while classic gay anthems played from the speakers. As a free all-ages event, Pride Night was able to attract a large crowd not long after its 4pm kickoff, with well over one hundred attendees, most of whom were UoO students. For exec member Jay and many others, it was “the biggest Pride Night I’ve been to by far.”
Partygoers Madzi, Jasmine and Harlo described the event as “fun and social”. Dressed to the nines and perched on a picnic blanket, the crew echoed that it was “amazing” to have the queer community included in O-week. “This would’ve really helped me in first year,” said Madzi. For new student Jasmine, it was “really good” to experience. Aaron Hawkin’s DJ skills even got the gay seal of approval: “Aaron is providing the bops!” verified UniQ.
“A lot goes into it,” Dunedin Pride committee member and event organiser Trak told Critic. Not only do these large events require huge amounts of mahi, but “it takes a lot of work done before us to get the University in a place where [pride events] can happen,” they said.
Dunedin Pride is a volunteer-run organisation that creates year-round events for Dunedin’s takatāpui and queer community, including Pride Nights on the last Friday of every month, and a slew of events planned for Pride Month in March. This one, however, “is pretty special” to Trak, as it was a “golden opportunity” to give “a big, warm welcome to students, particularly new, queer students right off the bat.” Hopefully, the event will return for O-week next year. “More, more, more!” is the vibe, according to Trak.
“This is a community collaboration – the Dunedin Pride community of the city partnering with Otago University, OUSA and the students,” said Trak. A pride event during O-week is “a game-changer. It’s amazing to have that awhi,” they continued, “I was a student here myself, and some of the things that we can do with pride now are so much different to what we could do even just 10 years ago… At that time I was struggling to come out, so to be down the track and actually running this stuff, knowing how to do it and feel confident with it, it’s quite beautiful,” they said. “It’s special.”